Content repositories manage and provide access to large data stores such as a newspaper archives, advertisements, inventories, image collections, etc. A content repository can be a key component of a Web application such as a Web portal, which must quickly serve up different types of content in response to a particular user's requests. However, difficulties can arise when trying to integrate more than one vendor's content repository. Each may have its own proprietary application program interface (API), conventions for manipulating content, and data formats. Performing a search across different repositories, for example, could require using completely different search mechanisms and converting each repository's search results into a common format. Furthermore, each time a repository is added to an application, the application software must be modified to accommodate these differences.